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Topic: Two Greek typikons (Read 1961 times)

From what I have been told, though most Greek parishes (I assume this includes the broader "Greek churches" as opposed to "Slavic churches", not just the Greeks themselves) use a reformed version of the Sabaite Typikon which is mostly abbreviated for practicality: for example, it eliminates the Vigil rank of feasts so that all feasts and Sundays are commemorated with just Vespers and Matins, changes the order of Matins, and (I'm guessing) gets rid of the single orarion for deacons. But I've also learned that this is only true of parishes. Greek monasteries, meanwhile, use the original, predating the mid-19th century reforms. Is this the product of specific rulings by the churches involved, or is it merely custom? Could a monastery decide to use the "Violakis Typicon", or conversely, a parish priest to use the Sabaite (over his congregation's protests)?

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"Whosoever you are who introduce new doctrines, I beseech you to spare the ears of Romans! Spare that faith which was commended by the voice of an Apostle. Why should you attempt to teach us, at the end of hundreds of years, that which we never heard before? Why bring forward what Peter and Paul did not will to make known? Until this day, the world was Christian without your doctrine. Thus, I hold as an old man onto that faith wherein I was regenerated as a boy." St. Jerome

From what I have been told, though most Greek parishes (I assume this includes the broader "Greek churches" as opposed to "Slavic churches", not just the Greeks themselves) use a reformed version of the Sabaite Typikon which is mostly abbreviated for practicality: for example, it eliminates the Vigil rank of feasts so that all feasts and Sundays are commemorated with just Vespers and Matins, changes the order of Matins, and (I'm guessing) gets rid of the single orarion for deacons. But I've also learned that this is only true of parishes. Greek monasteries, meanwhile, use the original, predating the mid-19th century reforms. Is this the product of specific rulings by the churches involved, or is it merely custom? Could a monastery decide to use the "Violakis Typicon", or conversely, a parish priest to use the Sabaite (over his congregation's protests)?

A parish or monastery normally must use the typikon authorized by the Bishop with authority over the parish or monstery. You can download a copy of an English language translation of the Violakis Typikon with notes indicating differences with the St. Sabba Typikon at http://almoutran.com/pdf/typikon.pdfAntiochians use the Violakis Typikon but without the changes he made. For example we chant the Matins Gospel in its traditional place before the canon. Instead of after the 8th ode of the canon as specified by Violakis' revisions.

Another thing is that, on the rare occasions that a Vigil is celebrated, Greeks actually make it longer than Slavs, i.e. after Matins they go through all the Hours and then Divine Liturgy, whereas Slavs stop after the First Hour and resume with the Third and Sixth Hours and Liturgy the following morning. Are the Greeks following the original practice in how they celebrate the Vigil?

I command this thread to rise from its freshly-dug grave and do my bidding once again.The use of the Sabaite and Violakis Typicons is often used as the basis of differentiating between the classic extremes of "Greek" and "Russian" practice. Fr. John Morris gave, above, an example of how the Antiochians are different from both. Does anyone know where the other Orthodox Churches fall on this spectrum, like the Romanians, Serbs, and Bulgarians, or, for that matter, the Georgians, Alexandrians, or Jerusalemites? Which typicon do they use, and do they modify it at all?

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"Whosoever you are who introduce new doctrines, I beseech you to spare the ears of Romans! Spare that faith which was commended by the voice of an Apostle. Why should you attempt to teach us, at the end of hundreds of years, that which we never heard before? Why bring forward what Peter and Paul did not will to make known? Until this day, the world was Christian without your doctrine. Thus, I hold as an old man onto that faith wherein I was regenerated as a boy." St. Jerome